A second-half equaliser by Eberechi Eze gave Crystal Palace their first point of the Premier League season as they secured a 1-1 draw away to Chelsea on Sunday, bouncing back from a poor start to grab a share of the spoils after a much-improved second half.
The home side broke the deadlock in the 25th minute after Palace defender Marc Guehi made an ill-advised raid forward and lost the ball, and the visitors’ defensive frailties were once again quickly exposed.
Winger Noni Madueke surged down the right before picking out Cole Palmer, and his deft pass found Nicolas Jackson steaming through the centre to score with ease from close range and put Palace on the back foot.
After slumping to successive defeats in their opening games of the season against West Ham United and Brentford and starting badly at Stamford Bridge, the Eagles finally achieved lift-off after the break.
The influential Palmer almost scored from a direct free kick before Palace found their mojo and Eze equalised in the 53rd minute, picking up the rebound from Cheick Doucoure’s blocked shot and curling the ball beautifully into the net from outside the box.
Both sides continued to chase a winner, with Levi Colwill going close for Chelsea and Palace’s Daichi Kamada forcing a fine save as the clocked ticked up towards 90 minutes.
Eze had a shot from the edge of the box blocked as his team seemed to tire in stoppage time, and Jackson had two great opportunities to snatch a winner for the Blues.
First he drove a shot into the side netting to the right of Dean Henderson’s goal, and a minute later he was played in behind the defence only for the Palace goalkeeper to quickly leave his line to avert the danger.
Despite just over eight minutes of stoppage time, neither side could find another goal and the game ended in a stalemate.
“I feel a bit of shame for the result but not the performance. The direction is the correct one,” Enzo Maresca said.
“We completely deserved to win the game. We had many, many chances. The most important thing was the performance and the performance was there.”
With Chelsea’s new signing Jadon Sancho watching from the stands, Maresca said he expected things to improve.
“We didn’t take the three points but playing the way we did today, I think we will win games … with the players arriving now we can [be] even better.”
